Amiga 2000 upgrade

[rick2965]

Hi All,
I have an Amiga 2000 , I would like to upgrade it, as cheap as possible!
I want to be able to connect to internet/network and watch movies

What I have:
1084 Monitor
Internal 3.5 Floppy
External 5 1/4 Floppy

Rev 6.2 MB
Paula 8364R7
Gary 5719
Fat Lady 8372A
Denise 8362R8

A2091 Rev 4 w 40 gb SCSI HD drive ( I am adding a SCSI CD rom) Whats is the max size I can go?
6.1 Roms
0K expanded

A2058 Rev 4
0K Expanded

KS 37.17
WB 37.75
I would like to format and reinstall WB - What  version can I put on and what disks do I need?


After reading other posts, I have some ideas, but would like your suggestions/recommendations etc. Please be specific, its been 20 years!

Upgrade roms to ? on 2091
Increase memory on 2091 and 2058 with 41C1000 (?) chips[FONT="][/FONT]
Add accelerator card
Add RJ45 card
add a video card
Replace any of the chips on MB?

Any other things I need?

thanks for your suggestions & help
David (Ontario)

[Kronos]

The A2091-ROMs should be o.k. as you are allready running an 512kb Kickstart (2.0 to be precise).

But ....

If you really want to watch movies and go on the net you'd need atleast an 040 or better 060-accel, all these come with SCSI-controllers more suitable than the old 2091.
A GFX-card like a Picasso2 and 3.1-ROMs might also come handy.

Still won't help you with higher-quality and/or heavily enconded movies (the 060 is a mid-90s CPU afterall).

Such an update would be around 500Euro (all 2nd/3rd/4th hand offcourse) but since you on the wrong side of that big wet&salty thing you might find prices even more extrem.

[rick2965]

Thanks for the post

What are 040 and 060 referring to?
What are the 3.1 roms - replacements for the one on the 2091 Card?

Thanks
David

[Kronos]

68040 and 68060, CPUs made by Motorolla, compatible with the 68000 found in your A2000 (but much faster).

3.1 are the latest Kickstart-ROMs, needed to run the latest versions of AmigaOS (read versions 3.1,3.5 and 3.9) for 68000-based Amigas.

[smerf]

Hi,

@rick2965,

Hey, I wish I could tell you that it can be done, but I really don't think it can be done.

You can get it to connect to the internet, but will be limited to a bunch of what I call internet garble, since most Amiga internet software hasn't been updated since 1993. Watching movies takes a lot of graphics and CPU power, the Amiga 2000 (or any Amiga just can't do it) I mean even a fully souped up Amiga can't do it (and if someone says that it can I would like to see it).

Hate to have such bad vibes, but the Amiga is just to old and even though I love the old girl at her age she can only do so much.

save your money and buy a cheap MAC or PC to surf the internet and watch movies.

smerf

[Jiffy]

Hi All,
I have an Amiga 2000 , I would like to upgrade it, as cheap as possible!

Upgrading the A2000 is easy... You can make it as cheap or as expensive as you want.

I want to be able to connect to internet/network and watch movies

Forget it. You are much better of by digging up a free P166MMX with Windows 98 or NT4. And I'm serious on that.

It is not difficult to get a classic Amiga like the A2000 on the net. E-mail, FTP, chat and the like will work quite nicely. But browsing the web on a classic Amiga is pure hell. The available browsers lack anything but the most basic internet technology (css anyone?), need more cpu power than even a 68060 expanded classic Amiga can deliver and then I'm not even talking about watching movies. You mean, like Youtube? Now thát is hilarious! :-D

I'm not bashing the Amiga, but take the girl for what it is: an extremely nice retro computer, still usable in many ways. But surfing the web is not one of those...

Upgrade roms to ? on 2091
Increase memory on 2091 and 2058 with 41C1000 (?) chips[FONT="][/FONT]
Add accelerator card
Add RJ45 card
add a video card
Replace any of the chips on MB?

My suggestion? Put in Kickstart 3.1. Upgrade the roms on the A2091 to 7.0. Max out the ram on both the A2091 & A2058. Put in a flicker fixer, such as the A2320 or the more capable Indivision ECS. I expect you have a 40 MB hard drive, not a 40 GB one? If so, put in a nice 4 GB one. Replace clock battery!

That gives you a pretty nice classic A2000.

You want more? An accelerator card would also be nice. Jens seems to be preparing to make a new one for both the A500 and A2000. Looking at the ones he made for both  the A600 and A1200, they will most likely be very nice, though they will not be the fastest ones available.

You could also expand your A2000 even further with an ethernet card and an RTG card. But by now, you are going to need serious money.

[MaximvsPayne]

hi,

at first you should realize, that there are different amiga-systems out there. you have an classic amiga and with these ones internet isnt that funny. there is an css capable browser out there for classic amigas, its called netsurf. under winuae its usable, but you cant watch youtube videos on it. if you want an modern amiga-system take a look at aros. with aros (icaros desktop) you can turn normal and cheap x86 hardware into an amiga system. you can buy new aros-computers for around 250-300 euro, just take a look at the imica and ares computers. also the ppc amigaos4/morphos systems are really nice to have and the morphos incarnation of the owb browser supports youtube directly, no need for arexx scripts and such stuff. amigaos4 has got a port of firefox called timberwolf, cool stuff. but this port lacks an flash-plugin. only a matter of time, i hope.

NEVER SURRENDER, NEVER GIVE UP

[dannyp1]

You need to start walking before you can run so my first suggestions for upgrading would be a 3.1 rom for your motherboard, and a megachip to give you 2mb of chip ram.  I wouldn't spend the money on the 7.0 roms for the 2091 untill you are sure that you won't get an accelerator with scsi on it.  You will also need OS 3.1 after you get the 3.1 rom.

[Amiga_Nut]

You need a Blizzard/Cyberstorm PowerPC upgrade processor accelerator card and a 24bit graphics card or the video card daughter board for those two accelerators mentioned to play something as lowly as DVDrips of TV shows floating round the internet. This is the bare minimum quality you should aim for if you want it to be useful. Mpeg1 is DEAD.

Budget about £900-1200 for just those two components. Not cheap at all.

[tone007]

You need a Blizzard/Cyberstorm PowerPC upgrade processor accelerator card and a 24bit graphics card or the video card daughter board for those two accelerators

Of course, neither PPC card is/was available for the A2000.  Best you can get is an '060 board, which won't do much good for video at all.

[Amiga_Nut]

Of course, neither PPC card is/was available for the A2000.  Best you can get is an '060 board, which won't do much good for video at all.

Ahh OK I thought there was a PPC card for the 2000 launched, maybe it never got off prototype stage and I am thinking Cyberstorm 060.

Could have sworn I saw one on ebay but maybe it was someone just trying for 900 bucks for the 060 card.

edit: In which case budget for an A4000/030 as well approx 200-300 bucks

[tone007]

There actually was a "developers board" prototype PPC addon that would work in the '060 socket on the Blizzard 2060, but good luck finding one of those.

http://www.amiga-hardware.com/showhardware.cgi?HARDID=239

[youtube]foWfXhmi1wY[/youtube]

[rick2965]

Thanks for all your posts.
to summarize:

upgrade to 68040/68060 cpu's
Replace A2091 roms with 7.0 roms
Add flicker Fixer
increase HD
Install mega chip
Install 3.1 roms (what are these?)
add 24bit graphic adapter
add accelerator
Increase memory

Did I miss anything?
Where can I find this stuff apart from Ebay? (in Canada)
Thanks
David

[Jiffy]

Did I miss anything?

Money. Lots.

Where can I find this stuff apart from Ebay? (in Canada)

Ebay. And Ebay. Ebay would also do. But be prepared to pay serious, serious money for the more rare pieces you are looking for.

Apart from that: Amigakit, Softwarehut & Vesalia are still active Amiga dealers (although I am not entirely sure about Softwarehut). Vesalia is in Germany, though.

And you can find stuff at Amibay.

[orange]

perhaps you'd be better off selling a2000 and getting a4000 or a1200.
they are easier to upgrade, and offer Zorro3 + AGA (iirc, money can't buy that on A2000)